WANTED: “All I want for Christmas is a nice QC!”

REWARD: The prestige of being a champion of The People & The City!

This is an exceptional appeal for legal help to challenge a recent controversial planning decision that will have very serious, long term implications for the Old Town and the reputation of the City unless quashed.

The campaign ‘Let There Be Light in Edinburgh’s Old Town’ has until 3rd January to apply to the court for a judicial review but to do so we need legal help…

We are a broad group of Citizens, deeply concerned about the direction Edinburgh Council is taking the City, having become debilitated by debt and marred with maladministration.

We have given many hours scrutinising hundreds of associated documents and conclude that this case represents a terrible injustice.

After concerted efforts to oppose the hotel application and then appeal at a parliamentary level, the Scottish Government has declined to intervene, claiming “there are no issues of national significance that would justify using the power of call-in in this particular case”.

With the political process having failed, the only recourse available to the community is to seek Judicial Review, which is otherwise prohibitively expensive, revealing the unfairness of the current planning system, particularly since communities, unlike developers, have no right of appeal.

Moreover, developers have a further fundamental advantage with a ‘presumption in favour of economic sustainable development’; an oxymoron on an otherwise fragile and finite planet…

Though we have not as yet raised campaign funds to pursue this case, we believe, if we were unable to secure pro bono support, money could be found through crowd sourcing, given the high regard in which the Central Library, the City and the legacy of Andrew Carnegie are held.

We have already enlisted the support of established artists, writers and other public figures and hope to gain the support of a certain notable writer associated with the Old Town, who is known to have written among the most successful children’s books ever published!

We believe that we have a strong case and that the threat of court action alone might be enough for decency to prevail.

For more info see:

If you would like to help, or know of someone who could assist, please send an email via the contacts page on the web site: